I guess it was inevitable, I have joined those of you who like to fly helicopters. My investment to this point has been very small, but I am beginning to sense this could become another "addiction" and may get very expensive.

I mistakenly purchased a 2 channel mini-heli - I say mistakenly since all the darned thing wants to do is spin. It looks good, but it doesn't fly for POOP! World Tech product - To be fair, I am sure their 3 and 4 channel versions don't have the same issues.

I started reading some reviews on E-bay of different models and found one that got very high marks from a whole lot of reviewers, so I got one. It is a Syma Gyro S107 which is rated as a 3.5 channel that comes with a 27mhz radio and USB port charger. This one was just want I was looking for. It is easy to fly, and is surprisingly well made. Has flashing LED's and is offered in a number of colors.

I liked it so much I now have three of them. The newer ones are S107G - I'm not able to see any differences between them. I got my neighbor started on one, and he has since purchased 4 more for his grand children. A buddy was helping me build a waterfall in my yard and I showed him my new toys and now he has one!

I am sure there are better models out there but for $20.00 it would be hard to beat these little guys! Syma makes the same models but larger up to about 30" with a 2.4ghz radio for less than $50.00. That has caught my eye - I may have get one?

In my last post I reported getting a couple of new boats a Serenity sailboat and and a Tug. I have since sold both of those boats. I liked the Serenity but a friend of mine kept bugging me to sell it to him and since I really wanted a to get a Fairwind lll, I opted to let him buy the boat. He loves it and I was able to get a new Fairwind lll. For those not familiar with this latest version of the Fairwind, it has the best finish I have ever seen on an RC sailboat! The tug was cute, but not large enough to act as a rescue craft for my much larger sailboats. Sold that as well.

I made a decision to sort through my fleet to determine those boats I really wanted to have and those that I could do with out. Among those that I put up for adoption were my Victor Footy, the Serenity, the South Hampton Tug, and my Blackstar 36. I opted to keep my favorite power boats which are Proboat's USCG Motor Life Boat, their Classic Chris Craft Runabout and a Miss Geico.

In the meantime I have added a Kyosho Fortune 612 (mini-seawind) and Victor V 32 replacing the one I shouldn't have sold over a year ago and as I mentioned a Kyosho Fairwind lll. I actually had three of these in the last few months, selling one to a friend in Canada. One has been converted into a Motor Sailor the other is still brand new. I know your thinking this guy is nuts? Not really - when I find attractive deals on these things, I will grab them - which means I can sell them to friends at a reduced prices to help...Continue Reading

Been a bit on the inactive side for the past few months while preparing for and then moving to a new home in a new city. As you all know moving is a major event in our lives, doing those things involved in moving and setting up a brand new home tends to limit ones focus to things with more gravity than one's hobbies.

During the transition,I had to box up for moving my boats and hobby equipment until such time as I could set up my new workshop set up in my new garage. Happy to report that project is well on the way to being done!

Just before moving I was able to acquire a new RC sailboat produced by Proboat/Horizon Hobbies called "Serenity". For some time, I had been looking to acquire a Fairwind, but was unable to locate one, so when I saw the Serenity, it struck me as having a similar look and feel. I began to try to find one at a reduced price as is my practice to make my hobby dollars go as far as possible. I found one advertised on E-bay by a company that buys damaged RC products like this and sells them at reduced prices.

This particular boat had only exterior box damage, with no damage to anything else. I saved about 35% from the best price I could find else where. The really great thing upon opening the box I was amazed to find one of the best looking fiberglass hulls I have ever seen on an RC boat. Truly as close to flawless as is possible to make it. The boat has very nice detailing including life line stanchions (made of metal not plastic) and...Continue Reading

Wanted to share a mystery with you guys. Recently, I helped friend sell a few of his RC boats via the forum. The mystery comes into play on one of these transactions.

We sold a nearly new Carbon Fiber Edition 1M Seawind RC sailboat to a fellow in Florida. Extra care was taken in the packaging of the boat, and other measures were incorporated by the UPS store to protect the boat from shipping damages. I tracked the boat and it arrived on time, but sadly the buyer reported to me that UPS damaged the hull in transit. I asked the buyer to provide me with detailed pictures of the damages to the boat and the box.

The damaged area was hard to see in the photos due to the boat being carbon Fiber, so the cracks didn't show up to well. I contacted my UPS store the same day to process a damage claim. I provided them with the photos, proof of the boats value and an estimate for the repairs - which were more that the amount of insurance we'd purchased. Nonetheless, we provided ample evidence of the value of the boat and of the expense involved in repairing the reported damages incurred in transit.

Those familiar with UPS know it takes a while to get UPS to process claims. Anyway, I have stayed in regular contact with buyer, keeping him informed on any progress and following up with UPS.

Where this starts to get weird is when UPS said they wanted to pick up the boat from the buyer, I told him I didn't understand that, and suggested he not give it to them unless we had some...Continue Reading

Recently completed a Victor Footy kit - I wanted a boat to sail on those days when the wind just isn't strong enough for my larger boats. These little guys are really a lot of fun. They can be sailed in heavier winds but tend to take on water - I may make a few refinements to the hatch seal and the transom to seal up the opening for the rudder's pushrod to reduce the potential for water getting in the boat.

I just received my first Blackstar boat - Chris Lones new 36" beauty. I asked him to ship it without the electronics or deck hardware so I could add my own. The boat looks really good and should be very fast. I plan on completing this boat after we move to our new home in March.

I was very fortunate to have found a very pretty Yellow Nirvana for sale on the forum. I have always liked the Yellow version and wanted to get one to put a few of my own touches to it to see how it'd look. So far so good. Once it is completed it will be going to one of my buddies to get him started on RC sailing.

I completed my Blue Nirvana's upgrades by adding a new high torque sail servo. The servo has a Futaba spline, so the Nirvana servo arm had to be modified to fit. I will testing the new servo as soon as the weather improves a bit here.

Winter time is a great time for projects - but this year a good deal of this winter at my house, will be spent cleaning out my garage and getting rid of things I no longer need or use, and packing for the move. The great news is the new...Continue Reading

A few months back I decided it was time to look into getting another Nirvana ll sailboat. I have owned two Nirvana's in my early sailing days. Sold those two and moved on to bigger boats.

As time went by I realized that I missed sailing the Nirvana. I looked around and found a very nice boat that a fellow forum member had purchased new, sadley he never got around to using it - the price was attractive - so I opted to get it - At that point, it occurred to me my wife might like to go sailing with me. Being the good husband that I am, I contacted my buddy Steve Lang at Sailrc.com to order one more Nivana. I ordered this one without electronics - as I had some extra servos and I have the radio and transmitter needed, so the investment was minimal.

Like many of you, I like to add my own touches to each boat - I made some changes to graphics on the first boat, similar to what I had done to my previous Nirvana's. Got the boat all tuned up and ready to sail, but when I tried to get the wife out there with me, she preferred playing golf with her buddies. Worked for me!

I decided I'd put that boat up for sale and concentrate on the other boat. Out of the blue a friend from the Nirvana forum asked me if I'd sell it to him. He had purchased one of my other Nirvana's - and he told me he wanted another boat to have on hand for "buddy sailing". Jim now has two very nice Nirvana's a red one and a blue one. He is my best customer!! Thanks Jim.

Just wanted to add a few current photos of my complete 182 - The plane has very good manners and is responsive. Very friendly to fly - looks great in the air, very scale looking aircraft. The plane has plenty of power and the flaps are very cool and add a dimension to the plane that provides additional control in varying wind conditions. My overall conclusion is that this one heck of an airplane for the money! There has been no issue with the nose gear to this point. My sense is that if the plane did include a real shock on the nose gear it would be a welcome addition for any future hard landings.

Nitroplanes put it on sale for $109.00 and I couldn't pass on that price. I received the plane and was happy with the service, packaging and short delievery time.
Had one small issue with the spinner and prop shaft adapter, but Nitroplanes sent me a replacement at my request. I was dubious about buying from them but to my surprise they did a good job.

Got the plane out to the flying field last Saturday - as I unloaded my planes on to my table, the guys in our club wondered over to inspect the new plane. I was surprised that none of them were aware of this plane.

I suspect that is because most of these guys are pretty senior pilots and are flying more advanced aircraft. This didn't lessen their interest in the Switch and the dual wing configuration option.

The general opinion was the plane looked very good and would be a good plane for me and other pilots in the club on the same level.

I had one of the senior pilots to check out my set up of the plane, it passed his inspection. It was my plan to see how the plane taxied and to get use to handling it on the ground. I made a number of passes up and down the runway, noting that it needed a good amount of runway to turn it around. I had read that this would be the case, so it didn't concern me. There is a modification that is recommended to reinforce the tail wheel, which should improve the turning radius.

Our field has been carved out of the desert floor, so it is not as smooth as a professionally built field and takes a some getting use to.

As I got comfortable with the plane on the ground, it began to increase the speed of my passes, allowing the plane to lift off the ground for a few feet then touching it back down. On my last pass down the runway, I gave her some more throttle and she lifted smoothly and straight, so I said to myself "let's go"...Continue Reading

While looking at Cessna 182's, I found a very cool plane listed in the Classifieds - I contacted the seller who lives 9 miles from me, took a short drive over to see it.

Met with the seller/owner, who put the plane through it's paces on the ground, showing everything was in proper working order. I had done some research on the plane and liked what I read, so armed with that information, and with such an attractive price, it was a no brainier. Nice unplanned deal.

The plane is not new, but still in good shape. I am admittedly picky, but it passed my quality requirements and the plane came with 2 lipos to sweeten the deal.

I am going to install nav. lights to the plane which I think will add to it's already good scale appearance.

I found a place called Lazertoyz.com that sells a nice LED kit for $29.00. I was not looking for this plane, but it was offered at a very fair price, and this plane strikes me as being more interesting and unique than a yellow J-3 Cub.

The fellow had completed the flap upgrade, so I won't have to do that, which saves me the time and the extra servo. All in all, I am happy with this purchase, and look forward to getting it the air next week.

I am in the middle of doing research on the best value in a 40" to 55" wing span Cesnna 182. Looking for planes without Radio, receiver and battery (have all that)
There are number of different planes out there from different sources. The planes I like the best so far are from online hobby stores that may or may not be the greatest places to buy or to expect any decent customer support from. If there are other sources I'd like to find them - please feel free to share.

I am also looking at smaller 182 Cessna's from Tower Hobbies and few other places - more on that in my next entry. Here is what I have so far on the larger planes.

Here is the latest. I got the plane last Weds. ahead of schedule. Opened the box with excitment, thinking if I got right on it, I could get it assembled in time for late afternoon flight tests.

I was very pleased with the packaging and the appearence of the planes parts. Some foamies are bit rough, but the Switch is not. I had downloaded the set up instructions and read them prior to the planes arrival, so I was ready to rock 'n roll.

I layed all the parts out on my work area, inspecting each peace for potential problems, or flaws. Everything was as it should be, or so it seemed. During my research I read as much as I could find on this plane, I remembered a comment made by a fellow that had purchased a Switch, got it home, inspected it and then put it all together. On his first flight just after take off, the motor mount pulled off of the fire wall.

He got it to the ground with out any damage. Upon close inspection, he realized the factory had not bonded the motor mount properly to the fire wall.
It was basically just pushed into the slots, being held only because the parts had a tight fit, but not tight enough without epoxy to hold it in place.

To get right to the point, I pulled the cowling off, wiggled the motor mount and quess what happened, it pulled right out of the pressed in slots in the firewall. One of the tabs was broken off, and glued into the firewall, the other three tabs hand little or not epoxy to hold in place.

Since my last post, Tower lowered their retail price ($329.99) on the Switch by $50, brining it down to $279, and with their premier member discount program, I got an additional $40 off, which brought my net price to $239 with free shipping!

That put the Switch at the top of the list for me. I was holding off on buying it because of it's price, and the fact that I didn't need any more radios, but at this price I had to jump on it.

I am still sold on the Electrostik and will likely put one together in near future. The Corvallis 350 is a winner as well but, like most, I have limited resources and space.

I am very excited to get the Switch after reading a bunch of reviews on it. I really like that it both a great trainer and a plane to grow into as my skills develop.

I have both of the Switch's configurations in my Real Flight Simulator, and am enjoying flying them until the new plane arrives next week.

I appreciate all the great suggestions and comments that have been posted.
Thank you all.

I will be updating my blog on how this plane works out for me. Stay tuned.

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I am in the middle of shopping for my next plane and looking at a few different models. I am looking planes that are beginner friendly.

I like scale appearence, and tend to favor those planes that are more realistic looking. I like foam aircraft for their durability, and ease of repairing. Foamies are getting more realistic, and less toy like.

The ElectroStik is reported to be one of the more user friendly aerobatic trainners around. The Big Senorita is reported to be friendly to pilots at the beginner and novice levels.

The Cessna 350 maybe too advanced a plane for me at this point. It has flaps and those can be tricky to use. It is a very good looking plane and maybe to pretty to crash. I am in the midst of reading reviews on these and some others.

OK, things are moving forward. I was able to come up with a replacment hull and deck to replace the damaged one. I have sold the other boat and extra parts.

I must admit to being somewhat disappointed in fit of the hull and deck components. It requires a lot of clugging around to get them together. Sandy at Graupner USA is a very helpful to MM owners. All the guys I have spoken to, are very helpful as well. So if you want to build one, you have some back up if you get stuck.

One would think that for as many of these boats that have been sold, the German's would have come up with a better design/fit. These things are blow molded or something like that, and not injection molded. The hulls are very thin, 1MM on the standard hull and the carbon fiber finished boat it is 1.5MM. I quess the lighter the faster.

Anyway, the boat when completed looks nice and is a very good sailing boat.
It is actually surprising, how well this little boat can sail. Time will tell if it is a keeper.

The boats arrived safely, good news there. Upon inspecting the contents, I discovered that the gentleman I purchased them from had started the assembly process of Carbon Fiber boat and unfortunately, not correctly, to the point where it is not practical to repair the damages.

I contacted the seller and he has graciously offered to refund back the value of a replacement hull and deck. This is fair and much appreciated. He was not aware of the full extend of assembly issues.

I was able to locate replacement parts which will permit me to move forward on the the Carbon Fiber version, which is my favorite.

I am excited to get the build started on this boat, but have to wait for the new hull, deck and keel box. These are nice boats, and once completed should make a nice addition to my sailing fleet. These little guys are easy to transport and can handle a wide range of conditions, so from everything I have hear and read, it should be fun to sail and race.

I guess all good things take time. I have decided to sell the other boat, which is the standard racing version 2014 - it is the same exact boat, without the carbon fiber finish. That will be listed in the Classified section sortly. I will update the blog once I receive the new parts.

I should be receiving several boxes by weeks end containing 2 new Micro Magic boat kits, and enough extra parts to build a 3rd boat. I was very fortunate to have been contacted by a fellow forum member that had purchased these kits and extra parts with the intention of building them, but sadely found his hands were not up to dealing with the small size of these 21" boats. He knew from reading my thread on the MMs that I was interested in building them and sent me a message offering me the intire package a price that was so reasonable, I had to buy them. Skip is a very gracious and generous fellow and I look forward to continuing our communications.

As soon as the boxes arrive, I will take a look a what I have and what I will need to get these boats on the water. When completed, I will have one Carbon Fiber edition and two standard racing versions. I included a few file pictures of what they will look like.

My new Summit arrived recently and was packaged properly and thus it arrived safe and sound. I must admit that this being my first off road/Crawler I was a bit overwhelmed at the complexity of this machine.

Since I am new to this type of vehicle, I jumped right into the manual to get a better understanding of how to use this monster, and to learn how to take care of it. There is quite a bit to learn, but not beyond my small brain's range.

I have been viewing Youtube videos of guys running these trucks in water and some even fully submerged, and wanted to know how this could be done with out wrecking it. The manual states the truck is water resistant, and not 100% water proof, and then they explain how to protect the truck and electrical system from death by drowning. I don't plan on throwing it in a lake like some have done in the Youtube videos, I will run it in the rain and in shallow river beds.

Once I had finished reading the manual, and completed charging the batteries, I tried it out at in house by first seeing if it would climb some stairs, amazingly, it did.

Then I took it outside to see how fast it would go. We have golf course behind us, so I ran it up and down a few fairways. The truck actually looked like it was smiling at me, and saying "is this the best you got?" It is fast enough for me at this point of my driving skills. Then to give the truck a bigger test, I ran it in some of the out-of-bounds areas of the course, which is more like being off road. It ate that up with out breaking a sweat. Next will be some rock crawling, which I am sure this truck will handle - I just need to learn how to drive it.

It short, the Summit appears to be a well engineered truck, it is fun to operate, it does require being on top of the maintainace - so all in all, it looks like "a keeper"

Boomer

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Update: Last week my New Vela 1M arrived at the house. I was excited to open the shipping box to inspect my newest boat. I was impressed with the quality of the packaging, and was wondering how I'd every get the boat out of the foam that it was more or less encased in. I managed to cut one of the foam lock downs they had in place to keep the boat in place, lifted the hull out carefully, which at first glance appeared to be all I'd hope for. Such was not the case.

At some point along the way, someone at the factory had attempted to make a repair to some blemish in the deck, and completely messed up the paint on the deck. I was a completely different finish, flat, and even had the guys finger prints in it.

This alone was enough to reject the boat. Upon further inspection, I notice a huge puddle of glue in the bottom of the hull where they bonded the mast to the bottom. Who ever put this particular hull together, had no skills what's so ever. I knew I wouldn't like the way the builders set up the sail management lines/sheets and that I'd have to upgrade, and this was further confirmed upon inspection. It was clear this boat was not up to my expectations and the workmanship on this particular boat was not acceptable.

Tower Hobbies was very understanding and set me a return authorization to return the boat for a refund.

My feeling about this boat is that is a good looking boat, but with some issues. I am glad I got to see it up close, and hope those fellows that have them, enjoy them. I am admittedly spoiled by the quality and finish of my Yamaha RTW. I will continue to search for new sailboats in the hope of finding another one to buy that is on a par with the Yamaha.
Boomer